American employers expanded their payrolls at a robust pace in November, the government reported on Friday, all but guaranteeing that policy makers at the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade when they meet in less than two weeks.

In addition to announcing 211,000 new hires last month — a bit more than Wall Street had expected — the Labor Department also revised upward its earlier estimate of job creation in September and October by a total of 26,000 jobs. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5 percent.

The labor market strength evident in the November data removes the last major uncertainty before the Fed decision.

Wall Street, which in the past has sold off after strong jobs data and the prospect of higher interest rates, greeted the report with enthusiasm, perhaps because it removes any remaining uncertainty about the Fed’s plans. Stocks reversed Thursday’s losses and rose more than 2 percent; bond yields fell slightly. The report on Friday echoes other recent positive data on job openings, new weekly claims for unemployment benefits and private payroll surveys, Mr. Orlando added. “This is a good number for liftoff,” he said, referring to the expected move by the central bank, which has held rates near zero since December 2008.

Over all, the Labor Department data painted a picture of an economy that is growing steadily and creating jobs at a healthy pace, even as wage gains remain subdued and many Americans are still stuck on the sidelines of the recovery.

If hiring continues at a healthy pace next year, as most economists now predict, it could also blunt Republican criticism in the presidential campaign of Democratic economic policies, which have been a prominent target for the current crop of G.O.P. candidates.

With an average monthly payroll increase of 210,000 so far this year, the 211,000 gain in November — though still subject to revision — has a metronome-like element of consistency. It is also near the average monthly increase of 199,000 in 2013 and 260,000 in 2014.

“For a long time, I’ve thought the labor market was in pretty good shape, and this just confirms that,” said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

After the release of the jobs report, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Patrick T. Harker, added his voice to the chorus of Fed officials who said it was time for the central bank to raise interest rates.

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Workers at the headquarters of Redwood Logistics in Chicago.CreditJoshua Lott for The New York Times

“Raising rates this year will, in my view, serve to reduce monetary policy uncertainty and to keep the economy on track for sustained growth with price stability,” Mr. Harker said at a Fed conference in Philadelphia.

Still, even after more than six years of economic recovery from the devastating financial crisis, the labor market is well below its pre-recession levels and pockets of economic weakness remain.

At 62.5 percent, the proportion of Americans in the labor force remains near multidecade lows. The jobless rate for African-Americans rose by 0.2 percentage point in November to 9.4 percent, which is more than twice the 4.3 percent level for white Americans.

Moreover, the economy is still 2.8 million jobs short of where it would have to be to match pre-recession employment levels while also absorbing new entrants into the work force, according to the Hamilton Project, a research group associated with the Brookings Institution in Washington. Even if the current trend continues, that so-called “jobs gap” will not be closed until mid-2017.

In addition to the tempo of hiring and the unemployment rate, Fed policy makers have been paying close attention to the pace of wage increases. In November, the government said wages rose by 0.2 percent, leaving the 12-month change in average hourly earnings 2.3 percent higher.

Despite steady hiring gains and a falling unemployment rate, wage growth in recent years has barely advanced faster than inflation. In October, that trend seemed to improve, with an unexpectedly strong 0.4 percentage point increase in average hourly earnings that pushed the 12-month gain to 2.5 percent even as the pace of inflation fell, mostly because of lower energy prices.

He foresees two more interest rate increases next year, bringing short-term rates to about 0.75 percent at this point next year. Other analysts, like Mr. Orlando, expect the Fed to raise rates roughly every other meeting next year, which would bring the Fed’s benchmark rate to about 1 percent in the fall of 2016.

This week, the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, Janet L. Yellen, and other top Fed officials made clear that a rate increase was imminent unless the economic data went wildly awry. Raising rates, Ms. Yellen said in a speech Wednesday, would be “a testament, also, to how far our economy has come in recovering from the effects of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.”

“It is a day that I expect we all are looking forward to,” she added.

In the November data, the mix of sectors doing the hiring was encouraging, with big gains in construction, education and health services, and the white-collar professional and business services sector.

On the other hand, the mining and logging sector lost 11,000 jobs, hit by continuing job cuts in the oil patch and other commodity-dependent industries.

One wild card in the November report was the retail sector. But the data showed that stores added 31,000 retail jobs.

The transportation and warehousing sector added 6,400 jobs in November, reversing losses in September and October.

In Chicago, Redwood Logistics has been on a steady growth track all year, adding about 100 employees in the last 12 months, said the company’s chief executive, Todd Berger.

With a nationwide work force of about 425, Mr. Berger said he anticipated hiring another 100 workers in the next year. Although many people might consider strong shoulders to be the main qualification for a job at a shipping and transportation company, the reality is very different.

Most of Redwood’s jobs require a college degree, Mr. Berger said. In November, Redwood filled three managerial positions, all of which paid more than $100,000 a year and required specialized training and experience.

Salaries for less-skilled positions, like truck drivers, have also been creeping up. In Texas, Redwood has been hiring drivers from among those laid off from the energy industry.

“Our drivers will go to work in the oil fields when that’s hot,” he said. “Now they’re coming back.”

Binyamin Appelbaum contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Jobs Report Is Viewed as Healthy Enough for Fed to Raise Rates . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe